Italian Villas and Their Gardens

VASANZIO (GIOVANNI)
B. –, d. 1622

Vasanzio, known also as Il Fiammingo, but whose real name was John of Xanten, was a Flemish architect who came to Italy and had considerable success in Rome. He built the Villa Borghese in Rome and designed the fountains of the inner court of the Villa Pia. He also worked on the Villa Mondragone at Frascati and succeeded Flaminio Ponzio as architect of the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome.

VASARI (GIORGIO)
1511-1574

Vasari, who was born at Arezzo, was a pupil of Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto. Though he considered himself a better painter than architect, it is chiefly as the latter that he interests the modern student. He built the court of the Uffizi in Florence and planned the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome; painted the ceiling of the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and carved the figure of Architecture on the tomb of Michelangelo in Santa Croce. He is, however, chiefly famous for his lives of the Italian painters and architects.

VIGNOLA (GIACOMO BAROZZI DA)
1507-1573

Vignola, one of the greatest architects of the sixteenth century, born at Vignola, in the province of Modena, followed Michelangelo as the architect of St. Peter’s. The Villa Lante at Bagnaia, near Viterbo, is attributed to him. In Rome he built the celebrated Villa di Papa Giulio, though the plan was Vasari’s; also the garden-architecture of the Orti Farnesiani on the Palatine. His masterpiece is the palace at Caprarola, near Viterbo. He also built the great Palazzo Farnese at Piacenza, various buildings at Bologna, and the loggia of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati. His church of the Gesù in Rome greatly influenced other architects. His text-book on the Orders of Architecture is one of the best-known works on the subject.